The number of people deleting TikTok in the US has surged following a deal that saw a group of investors loyal to President Donald Trump take over the American operations of the social media app.
Figures from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower show that the number of US users uninstalling TikTok has risen nearly 150 per cent since the change of ownership took place last week.
Some TikTok users have raised censorship concerns stemming from the new ownership structure, with the app passing from Chinese owner ByteDance to an investment group that includes the tech giant Oracle, led by Trump ally Larry Ellison.
Videos critical of Trump and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minneapolis appeared to receive no views this week, while words like ‘Epstein’ were blocked in messages.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would launch a probe into whether TikTok is censoring content since the takeover, which could be in violation of state law.
TikTok has acknowledged the incidents, blaming them on widespread technical issues relating to server problems.
A TikTok spokesperson told The Independent that the app did not have rules about sharing the name Jeffrey Epstein – the late convicted child sex offender and former close associate of Trump.
The spokesperson added that TikTok had identified and is fixing the problem that caused some users to experience issues.
“We’re continuing to resolve a major infrastructure issue triggered by a power outage at one of our US data centre partner sites,” a statement from the company said.
“The US user experience may still have some technical issues, including when posting new content.”
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Other users have raised concerns about TikTok’s updated privacy policy, claiming that it is requesting sensitive information that could be used against them by the Trump administration.
The policy requests information about a user’s “sexual life or sexual orientation, status as transgender or nonbinary, citizenship or immigration status”, however an archived version of the terms shows the same language was used under ByteDance’s ownership.
The fears surrounding TikTok’s new owners have led to a spike in downloads for the app’s rivals, with Skylight and UpScrolled both experiencing a significant increase in users in recent days.
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